Nowhere Near Free
by Aichihuahua
Summary: "I am getting my justice," Aurora's voice once was again calm and her straight face once again falling back into place as she lifted her chin, "I was once told not to confuse vengeance with justice. I suppose it was true concerning the circumstances before, but now I think they are one and the same. So yes, Killian Jones, I will get my vengeance." (My Into The Deep therapy)


**AN NOTE:** Sleeping Hook has eaten me alive weeks ago and I'm loving every minute of it. This isn't beta'd so all mistakes are my own.

**Disclaimer:** Once Upon A Time belongs to ABC. Story belongs to me.

* * *

It had been a few days since the old and new worlds were joined together by the portal. Days since Emma's and Snow's mission to be reunited with their loved ones was finally accomplished. Husband and wife, mother and son together again. The entire town, minds full of two different lives in need of leadership, welcomed back its royal family. At the entrance to the portal, the battle between The Queen and Princess of the Enchanted Forest against the Queen of Hearts and Hook ended with good overpowering evil. Supposedly, whatever magic that raced through the Savior's veins was enough to win against the evil witch. They had locked Cora up in the dungeon, believing that it would be enough of a restraint to keep her away long enough for them to travel safely through the portal and to close it behind them without her gaining entrance as well. Believing that they were safe from the greatest evil, the citizens of Storybrooke had fallen into a peaceful lull. Through the anxiety that Cora caused, Regina, Snow, James, Emma, and Gold had reached a sort of understanding. This inspired the rest of the town that maybe the loss of the old land was a sort of second chance. To live a life they stopped living surrounded by the people they once thought were lost. Ready to take this chance at a new life without the dangers of magic, they were beginning to feel freedom.

But as Aurora, the once Princess of the Sands, walked through the hospital hallways following the blonde doctor, she felt nowhere near free.

She followed the doctor further and further into the hospital. The doctor swiped a card through a box next to a door with Mental Ward written on it's face. There was a click and the blonde man opened the door slightly, but suddenly turned around and studied her with a raised eyebrow and pursed lips. Through the cracked door, Aurora could see the dimmed lights of the restricted section compared to the stingingly white lights of the main hospital.

"Are you sure you want to go down here sweetie? The Queens of the town said that no one was allowed. And while I'm usually one for not following the rules, I don't think the basement is the kind of place for a girl like you to be wandering around in." The doctor, who she remembered Snow had warned her about getting too close too, looked her up and down with a leer.

Aurora returned his playful look that was laced with genuine concern with a blank stare. The only sign of the annoyance she currently felt for being called such belittling names showed through her usual raise of an eyebrow.

"I'm not here to _wander_ Doctor. And since you proclaim that going against the rules is a character trait of yours, you should have no problem hurrying up and letting me through that door while you leave me be." Her statement, or rather order, was clearly heard by the doctor who responded with a roll of his eyes, a huff, and a push to the door.

"Have fun." Standing in the doorway, he held the door open for her with one hand and smiled at her. As Aurora, head held high, walked past him.

"He's in the last room to the left." And with that, the doctor closed the door leaving Aurora alone in the stairway. There weren't as many lights in the ward compared to the upper floors. As Aurora made her way down the steps, she made note how the dimness and the foreboding sense that was created was quite fitting for why she was walking down the Mental Ward in the first place. She walked past the frightening nurse and down the main hall, making her way to the end.

Once Aurora reached the last door to the right she stopped, suddenly overtaken equally with thoughts, not feelings, of rage, fear, and incredible sadness. The last time she interacted with the man behind the door in front of her by herself, he had saved her. He had made her believe that she was right while the rest of her female companions were wrong. That he was human. That while Emma was the one to believe that he was without any morality, too lost to be saved, she believed he was. That his letting her go against Cora's wishes proved that.

But then he stole her heart. And gave it to Cora.

Back before they went through the portal, while the majority of the group's plan was to leave the Captain to rot along with Cora, Emma, the one who trusted him the least, the one who was ready to leave him for dead multiple times, was adamant that they should bring him with them. That they could keep him locked away in secret in Storybrooke, that if they ever needed a way to finally get the upper hand over Rumplestiltskin, they could use him. Mulan and Aurora were strongly against it and Snow was unsure, but there was no convincing Emma. She made the order, swayed Snow, and so they followed her.

Aurora reached into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out the key that the doctor gave her. She slid it into the lock and turned hearing the click. Before twisting the knob, she pulled her hand back to herself. She rubbed her hand on her chest, over her _heart_, and took a deep calming breath, her reflex in stressful situations such as these.

She twisted the knob, slowly opened the door and took in the dark room before her. It consisted of only a window, a bed, a sink, and a toilet; it was a prison cell. On the bed was the scruffy pirate, stripped of his namesake, his black leather, and his jewels. Instead he was donned in the white shirt and pants courtesy of the hospital. He was lounging back on his bed with his hands behind his head and eyes closed. A few seconds after she opened the door, the man finally opened his eyes and turned his head towards his visitor. He looked over at her, and his surprise was evident.

Aurora watched as his face shifted from recognition, to shock, to a blanck expression with eyes with a glaze she couldn't define. It would have been nice if it was guilt or fear, but she didn't have her hopes up.

"Why hello Princess. What a nice change of scenery." Killian Jones, or Captain Hook, slowly lifted himself up to sit on his bed to face her. The left side of his mouth pulled up ever so slightly in a forced smile. She couldn't make out if it was either to ease her, ease himself, or show her prison life hadn't broken him. Aurora only kept looking at him

"Now, now. Why the hard stare? Such a pretty face shouldn't be marred by such an ugly expression." Said Hook trying to keep his tone as light as he could.

The princess still stood at the doorway. Aurora's only movement being her rising and falling chest as she breathed, her face still the stone mask that she adorned since they made their journey to Storybrooke. Leaving Cora and her heart in the old world.

"The silent treatment is it? Not that I've thought much about it, but I was expecting that our next interaction would involve you ordering your armored lass to cut out my own hear-"

"Don't," Aurora's demand pierced Hook's words and stopped him dead, "Don't you dare say that word to me." Her tone was hard and cold. The fists that she had clenched at her sides shook.

"Cut a nerve have I?" Hook joked warily and rocked back. He looked at her down his nose.

"If you hate me so much, why torture yourself by coming down to my pit sweetheart? Your little militia of friends aren't here to do the dirty work for you, and I know you can't do any damage yourself," Hook had lost his attempt at a smile, now he just looked tired. He grabbed the edge of the bed and leaned forward towards Aurora. "So what do you want with me?"

"I came here to talk to you." Aurora stated.

The princess took a step into the room. A step closer towards a man who changed her mental picture of evil from solely featuring Maleficent. She was thankful that he stayed sitting on the bed looking up at her instead of him standing up and looking down at her, if he did she didn't think she would have had the courage to do this.

"Have you heard about me? My story?" The question hang in the tense air. Aurora's stare pierced into Hook's.

"What?" Coughed the pirate, confused and annoyed.

"You heard me."

Hook rolled his eyes and with a huff swung his head.

"The Sleeping Beauty. Cursed by a vain old ninny of a witch to sleep for one hundred years. What of it?" He roughly questioned.

"I willingly took that curse to protect my mother and kingdom almost three decades ago. Trapped inside my own body for nearly thirty years, with nothing I could do to stop it. Practically encased in stone, while everyone I went under the curse for was ripped away by the Evil Queen's own curse only a year after I sacrificed myself. I was left lying on an altar vulnerable to the entire world." Aurora began, her brow creased in remembrance. This was the first time she has actually spoken of what happened to her. Mulan was always too polite to truly ask her about it even though Aurora could always sense that she wanted to ask whenever she caught the armored girl staring at her with curiosity and worry. Grazing this part of her past felt more raw than she thought it would.

"Eventually, against my wishes, I was awakened by true love's kiss. Only for Philip's soul to be sucked out of his body days after, leaving me with only his travel companion from his years without me. A girl, the exact opposite of me, whom he obviously had strong feelings for, which were equally if not more returned." By this time Aurora wasn't even looking at the man she was lecturing. Her gaze was fixed to the side, her mind lost in her thoughts and memories of her old love, moved on in more than one sense.

"Not that I'm not enjoying your delightful story, but why the hell are you telling me this?" Asked the frustrated Hook, effectively breaking Aurora from her daze.

Aurora head whipped back towards him. Gone was the emptiness, sadness, and trouble from her face, now there was only controlled anger.

"Because you owe me!" Aurora all but spat in his face, taking three steps towards the pirate who in reflex leaned back from her approach.

"I have never been able to speak my mind. To let out what I'm forced to keep bottled up," Gone was Aurora's stately control. Her brows raised in desperation and eyes pleading from the emotions her words were sparked from, "I couldn't express myself because I was a princess. And recently I couldn't because I was the useless burden of a girl, nothing to say or do to ever be good enough!"

"And those three are not my friends!" She thrust a pointed finger into the man's face, nearly hitting him. The claim came out louder than the rest of her speech.

"Emma only relented to allowing me to pull down the group because of my curse. Mary Margaret only accepted my presence because she wanted someone to baby because her own doesn't act like a child while she sees me as one. And Mulan, who I do honestly thank for protecting me, I know only does so because of her undying loyalty to Phillip."

"All I had left was myself, and because of Maleficent, I only have _half_ of myself. I can't sleep without pain, having to live my days with no family, no love, no rest - no good dreams. There is not one comfort left in my life," When Aurora's voice cracked she straightened and inhaled. Her eyes hardened again, "And now that you stole my heart and handed it to that puppet-master, _my heart_," At this, Aurora clutched the fabric over her heart, "- the central being of a person, I don't even have any of myself anymore."

"Ever since I've woken up and had been pulled into this ongoing affair of danger after danger, I've been trying to determine who exactly I am now. I'm not a princess, I'm not a daughter, I'm not a wife," She now gave up at restraining herself. Her hands cut through the air at every mention of what she now wasn't.

"And somehow, through the countless times I was willing to sacrifice myself yet again, I was beginning to find myself. I may not have had the physical prowess of those women who suffocated me, but I had my inner strength. My _will_. And now _that_ is gone. Now not only don't I have to fear what happens when I sleep, but I doubt every thought and action of mine now with the knowledge that I can be doing Cora's bidding at any time and not know it. You have taken all that I had left and have thrown it away for your own revenge. Without a second thought."

The princess and the pirate were left staring at each other now that her diatribe was over. Aurora's breathing was hard. Her eyes bored into his, waiting for his reaction at all that she had unloaded on him. Hook only looked back at her with his hands still clutching the bed, his knuckles white, and his jaw clenched. Seeing him so obviously uncomfortable from her words gave her the satisfaction that she prepared herself not to feel before reaching the hospital. After a few moments of the staring contest, Aurora won once the captain finally gave up at trying to keep his composure by ducking his head and turning away from her.

"Are you going to get your vengeance now?" Asked Hook. His voice was rough with trepidation. Hesitantly, he turned his head back towards the girl only looking at her from the corners of his eyes preparing himself for her final condemnation.

"I am getting my justice," Aurora's voice once was again calm and her straight face once again falling back into place as she lifted her chin, "I was once told not to confuse vengeance with justice. I suppose it was true concerning the circumstances before, but now I think they are one and the same. So yes, Killian Jones, I will get my vengeance."

She watched at the mention of his real name caused him to swallow and blink.

"Well? You have me. Alone. Hookless. Completely at your mercy. Are you going to kill me?" The way he faced her as he asked her looked as though he was willing to go along with the sentence. If his death was what she wanted then he would give it to her.

"I don't think I need to kill you to get my revenge. As long as you have some shred of humanity left in you, and I believe deep down you do, I will."

With one last knowing look, as if she could see the guilt and shame now eating away at him, she looked him up and down and turned away from the pirate. Once she reached the doorway of his room, she halted once she heard Hook's troubled whisper.

"I was going to get it back. When the job was over, I was going to get it back."

His words only made the emptiness in her chest feel even more hollow. In her mind she knew she was sad, and her mind felt sad, but there was no twisting or pains that she usually felt before. If only he had. If only he could. But his statement was empty, not that it was a lie but that it was impossible now for him to fulfill it now. Aurora closed the door behind her, leaving Hook once again alone in his cell with only thoughts of an empty girl consuming him.


End file.
